Craig’s Reviews > The Old Curiosity Shop > Status Update

As painfully tedious as the first half of this book was, it has gotten a little better lately. Dickens' humor can be hilariously biting when he wants. The scene in which Kit arrives at a church sermon where everyone is fighting back sleep--most unsuccessfully--is one of my favorites so far.

As painfully tedious as the first half of this book was, it has gotten a little better lately. Dickens' humor can be hilariously biting when he wants. The scene in which Kit arrives at a church sermon where everyone is fighting back sleep--most unsuccessfully--is one of my favorites so far.

As painfully tedious as the first half of this book was, it has gotten a little better lately. Dickens' humor can be hilariously biting when he wants. The scene in which Kit arrives at a church sermon where everyone is fighting back sleep--most unsuccessfully--is one of my favorites so far.

I'm having trouble getting into this one. The two characters that you would think at the outset would be the most interesting -- an angry, wife-abusing dwarf and a guy named Dick Swiveler -- are actually kind of boring so far. It might not help that 70s-esque porn music runs through my head every time the Dick Swiveler character is mentioned, distracting me from the story Dickens intended.